The Octopus' Spawn
by The Master Planner
Summary: Anna Smith was a desperate housewife before they made a show about it. But when she cheats on her husband with an infamous supervillian, will the consequences come back to haunt her son?
1. Prolouge: Doctors and Lawyers

The Octopus' Spawn

Prologue: Lawyers and Doctors

The early light of April dawn streamed through the bedroom as Anna Smith, Esquire, packed her suitcase, preparing for the important bar association meeting in New York City. The plane was going to take off in four hours.

Her husband, Jake Winthrop, was still in bed. "Woman! Why isn't my breakfast here! I'm starving!"

Anna opened her mouth to speak. "Get it yourself, you lazy pig! If you want breakfast in bed, try sleeping in the kitchen!" Of course, the great lawyer didn't actually say this. Black and blue didn't go to well with a red business suit.

Jake wasn't always a wife-beating pig. When he was dating Anna, he showered her with gifts, flowers, and chocolates. He always walked on the outside of the street when walking with her, and always opened doors and pulled out chairs.

But soon he started getting jealous. He insisted that Anna go to work without makeup, and in dowdy dresses that even her mother wouldn't be caught dead in. "You're a beautiful woman, Anna," he'd say. "I don't want the other men getting ideas. I don't want you putting ideas in their heads. You belong to me. Remember that." This progressed to Jake controlling the finances, what she could do and whom she could see. The slightest transgression could throw him in a temper—if she even mentioned that she had gone to lunch with a male attorney to discuss a plea bargain, Anna would end up with bruises that would last for weeks. Jake constantly said that women were permanently immature, like babies, only with nicer figures.

The lawyer racked her brains, wondering what went wrong. She could grill a prosecution witness and a few minutes later they would be telling her what they did, who they did it with, and why they did it. But the questions she couldn't answer were the ones she asked of herself. She carefully brushed concealer on her face, trying not to make the black eyes hurt more.

The bruises were from the latest fight, last night. Jake had shouted, as usual, that she was his wife and property, after dredging up her every single disobedience from all fourteen months of their marriage. Finally, Anna had had enough. She hit him first. At six foot three and 185 pounds, she hadn't been called "Hammerhand" in high school for compliments' sake.

Anna's sister, Samantha Laufey, always asked her why she didn't leave him. Laufey said he was the one who was wrong, not her. He had no right to treat any woman like that.

But Anna didn't know if she could trust Laufey anymore. It was during that same fight that he told her in so many words he'd slept with her sister—and she was far better in the bedroom.

"Woman!" Jake yelled. "Are you gonna let me starve? Get me some food! What do you think a wife is for?" Thanks to her, he also had a black eye.

Anna snapped. "There's a certain thing now, it was only invented recently, in the 1920s. It's called a McDonalds, and they have one right down the street. And it's probably better food, by the way you talk about my cooking."

"What about the house? It's a mess. Why can't you clean, like a normal wife does?"

"Why can't you go to work, like a normal husband does?"

He would have hit her right then, but he didn't want the Hammerhand treatment again. Jake contented himself with looking his wife over.

"Red. I should have known it would have been red."

Anna was wearing a red pantsuit and jacket, which horribly classed with her red hair.

"You're going to give men ideas. You're my property, remember that."

Okay, so he wasn't Mr. Romantic, and she wasn't Martha Stewart. She sighed. How did Miss Most Likely to Succeed, the "Clarence Darrow in a skirt," as one law newsletter called her, get into this mess?

Anna checked herself into the New York City hotel, and threw her suitcase on the bed. The conference wasn't until the next afternoon, and she could unpack later. Right now Anna needed a good stiff drink. Maybe she'd meet a handsome guy, and talk to him. Heck, maybe she'd even dance a few times. Anna wasn't _anyone's_ property. Jake would do well to remember that.

Anna entered the bar. A lone barstool sat next to the counter. Sitting on the next barstool over was a man, bobbing the olive up and down his martini with his finger. Anna checked him out.

The strange man had messy brown hair, and he wore a black leather trench coat and matching gloves. He had a long, straight nose, and he was scowling, but the rest of his face was hidden behind dark sunglasses. Only the keenest observer would notice the metal pincers peeking out from beneath the coat, but most of the people there were too pixilated to observe much.

The former scientist now known as Doctor Octopus took notice of the lawyer. "What do you want, lady?" he growled.

"Well, excuse me!" Anna snarled. "Mister, I just want a drink! Is this barstool taken or not?!" No normal New Yorker would say _that_, in _that_ tone, to Doc Ock, but Anna was from California, and she hadn't got where she was (professionally, that is) by being timid.

"No it isn't. Sorry for snapping at you like that." For his part, the doctor was relieved that someone was bold enough to talk to him like that, like he was another rude guy at a bar, not a criminal freak with mechanical tentacles welded on his back.

"That's okay. Bartender! Get me a tequila!" Anna shouted. "By the way," she said to the man, "I didn't quite catch your name."

"I thought everyone knew about me by now," remarked the scientist.

"Well, _I_ don't," retorted the lawyer. "I'm from California. I've got a law convention here."

"Ah, the land of fruits and nuts. Very well, then—Dr. Otto Octavius." He extended a gloved hand, which Anna shook. "Anna Smith, Esquire. Let me guess—women troubles?"

"Among other things. It's been hell ever since my wife died. It devastated me. I even attempted suicide once."

"I'm sorry," Anna stated. "You seem like a very nice man."

"Not everyone would agree. At least you have a husband."

Anna looked. She had forgotten to remove her wedding ring.

"Yes—a husband who hits me when he's there, and cheating on me when he's not." It was amazing what alcohol could do; three tequilas and an indeterminate amount of martinis, and these two people who barely knew each other were now divulging their personal love lives. Anna paused. "With my own sister."

The next few hours went in a blur. The doctor and the lawyer even danced a few times. If she wasn't so stewed, Anna would have refused when Dr. Octavius offered to escort her back to her hotel room. "An attractive woman like you shouldn't be out in the New York City streets alone at this time," he said. If she wasn't so drunk, she would have asked herself, _What if he was a murderer or something?_ No way, she finally decided. He was so nice, and so haunted somehow. So she went with him to the hotel.

Nine months later, Jake Winthrop looked at his brown-eyed, brown-haired boy and knew that the shoe had been on the other foot.


	2. Twinkies and Tabloids

Thanks to the impressive total of **two** people who reviewed my story so far. Here are my replies:

To Shadowy Seclusion: Yes, this is about Doc Ock's son. I have read quite a number of good stories about Dr. Octopus and his daughter...but I decided to make it a son for my story.

To Agent Silver: Yes, Anna is pretty busted. As I always saw both Jake and Anna as blue-eyed, having a brown-eyed kid definitely means something is up. The answer to why is found in any high school biology textbook.

Now, for the story! You won't find any Marvel characters in here, that will be soon. This chapter is all about Anna and her family, foreshadowing things to come...Now read, for God's sake! And review!

Chapter 2: Twinkies and Tabloids

Fourteen years later…

The alarm clock rang 6:30. Time to be up and dressed for school.

Austin Smith rolled out of bed—reluctantly. Still rubbing the sleep gunk out of his brown eyes, he haphazardly made his bed and put his clothes on. He looked in the mirror, trying to comb his hair. His brown hair had a permanently windswept appearance, even though there was never any wind in Elsinore, CA this time of year. After ten minutes of frantic combing, Austin finally decided it was no use trying to get his hair to behave, and put on dark sunglasses. Austin had a rather peculiar liking for wearing sunglasses, even though he didn't know why. Smelling breakfast from the kitchen, he hurried down for breakfast.

As well as his mother, Anna, and his aunt, Laufey, his fraternal twin sister Magni and cousin Rachelle were there. Magni was busily describing to Rachelle her dream of making out with Tobey Maguire, and it was pretty graphic.

"Tobey Maguire?" Austin grunted, taking two pancakes. "Isn't he that dumb geeky looking actor?"

"Look at the pot calling the kettle black," retorted Magni. "You're such a geek, you'll be lucky if Maia Wilson gives you the time of day." Maia was another high school student at Elsinore, and she weighed 98 pounds—half of it pimples.

Austin munched his pancake. "I had a dream last night too."

"Austin, don't talk with your mouth full," corrected Anna.

"Yeah, Mom." Austin hurriedly chewed and swallowed. "The dream was about an octopus. It was climbing up a skyscraper. Like King Kong."

No one noticed that Anna had now swallowed her orange juice down the wrong tube and was now in a fit of coughing.

"You dork," said Magni. "Octopuses can't climb walls. They live underwater."

"Well _this_ one did," insisted Austin. "Besides, it was a dream."

"You're stupid," Magni snapped, picking up her backpack. Cousin Rachelle offered a sympathetic look, shrugged her shoulders, and picked up her own backpack. Austin sighed. Being the only guy in a house full of girls is complicated.

"Get in the car, I'm driving," Anna ordered. "I have something to do at the school today."

Anna sat perched on a stool in front of Magni's Home Economics class, finishing her lecture on being a single working mother.

"So, that's what it's like," she concluded. "You know, Miss Watson," referring to the teacher, "I've grown rather fond of these kids. Why don't I take them out on a field trip? To the school of hard knocks, so to speak."

"Splendid!" said the teacher. "I'll print out some permission slips."

As the bell rang for lunch, Austin went very carefully into the hallway, as best as he could while pressed in the throng of hungry kids. He couldn't let Brandon McCloud see him, much less beat him up, until his plan was in full force. He thought of the Twinkies in his backpack—and his plan.

It was a mild day as nine girls, including Magni, met Anna at the grocery store. Anna pulled a cart out. She extended the child seat. "Magni, you're here! Want to sit in the basket with Mommy?"

The girls laughed. Magni rolled her eyes and muttered "Mom…" Anna put her purse in the child seat.

"Weren't there boys in this class?" Anna asked, looking around.

"Yeah," said a girl, "but they didn't come. They think shopping's a girl's job."

"Tell me something I don't know. Come on, let's go to the meat section."

Anna gestured to the meat racks. "Okay, you're a single working mother, you've got three hungry kids and a perpetually jobless sister at home, and you're on a really tight budget. Which meat will you choose?" She directed this question at a young black girl in dreadlocks.

"Um, there's so much meat here."

"What's your name?"

"Ebony."

"Well, Ebony, you've got three hungry kids at home! Move, move, move!"

"All _right_!" Ebony raced over and grabbed the first pack of meat she could see.

Anna read the label. "T-bone steak, $14.99 per pound. Ebony, what do your parents do?"

"My father's a proctologist."

"Well, Ebony, then for you this would be a good choice. For us mere mortals, however, it's this." Anna held up a package. "Ground beef, 27 fat. The food of the gods." She tossed the ground beef in the cart. "Let's get to the cereal aisle. We need to get cornflakes."

"_Corn flakes_?" yelped Magni. "What for?"

"Well how else are you going to turn four servings of meat into ten servings of mouthwatering meat loaf?" Anna asked. "Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question. Let's go."

Anna and nine girls were now looking in the cereal aisle. "Magni, get me a box of cornflakes," she ordered. The young girl brushed the red hair out of her eyes and grabbed a box right at eye level.

"Kellogg's? That's the name brand. Here you go, Ebony." Anna handed the box off. She reached up to the top shelf. "It's the generic stuff for us po' folks."

"But Mom!" Magni retorted. "Austin and I eat name brand Count Chocula for breakfast!"

"Ah, Magni, how could I tell you? Ever since you guys were six, I've just been refilling the box with the generic stuff. I'm sorry you had to find out like this," Anna sighed, eliciting much laughter from the girls. From Anna's tone of voice, it was like she just told a child that Santa Claus didn't exist, which was very funny.

Austin strolled home. For two days, McCloud hadn't beaten him up. His plan was in full swing. Austin always had a strategy for to get what he wanted, and he wasn't afraid to play dirty. How he was a natural at strategy he didn't know; but his plans, though not exactly ethical, always worked to his advantage.

There was the time that he found out that the only reason that the cheerleading captain, Brittany Gibson, had asked him on a date was that she lost a bet. But Austin was graciously wenton the date anyway—but not before hiring an older boy to stage a mugging as Austin and Brittany walked to her car. When the "mugger" shoved a gun in Brittany's face, Austin "knocked him out" whith a couple well-placed punches. For a few minutes, the mild-mannered science geek became Superman, and Austin rather enjoyed the attentions of the other girls afterward.

Anna looked into the cart. "Okay, we've got meat, cornflakes, spices, ketchup, and boxed mashed potatoes. Let's head to checkout. Magni, run and get some Twinkies."

"What for?"

"Your brother. They're cheaper than karate lessons, at any rate."

At the checkout, Anna pointed at the racks of tabloids, candy bars, and gum.

"These are the impulse items," she said. "The store's hoping that some poor schmuck will be standing in line like we are now, and drop something in the basket." She paused to pick up a king size Hershey bar. "And it's never worth it—except for chocolate, of course."

However, one of the girls had already picked up a tabloid. "Doc Ock's Love Child: Tentacled supervillian may have fathered son with one night stand," she read aloud. "Hey Magni, is this a picture of that geek brother of yours?"

"Let me see!" Magni cried, looking over the girl's shoulder. "He _does _look like him, except Austin doesn't have te—"

The paper was snatched out of the girl's hand. "Like I said, it's never worth it," sighed Anna.

"Oh, look there," Anna said, pointing to the guy ahead of her. "Doritos, _TV Guide_, a TV dinner, a six-pack of beer—yup, single and staying that way."

The girls laughed. Fortunately, girls like these had attention spans slightly shorter than your average Britney Spears song.

"Okay," said Anna as she and the girls arrived home, "you three—follow the instructions to cook the mashed potatoes. You three are cleaning up, setting the table, and doing the dishes. Now you three—" Anna said, holding up a cake pan, "are doing the meat loaf. Take half the cornflakes, the meat, spices, and some of the ketchup, mush it all up with your hands, plop it in the pan, put some more ketchup on it, and bake it at 375°."

"How will we know it's done?" asked one.

"When my perpetually jobless sister comes in and says, 'Meat loaf _again_?' Now get to it."

"Wait, why do we have to cook you dinner?" asked another girl.

"You wanted to learn what it was like to be a single mother. You're going to the school of hard knocks. Try doing what all nine of you are doing, all by yourself."

Anna plopped down on the couch. Laufey joined her sister, turning on the TV. The doorbell rang.

"Oh God," muttered Anna. "I hope they're not Jehovah witnesses or something."

She opened the door to see a burly man in frayed jeans and a t-shirt reading, "Women Love Me, Fish Fear Me."

_Okay, too poorly dressed to be a Jehovah witness_, thought Anna.

"Where's District Attorney Smith? I need to have a little talk with that crooked lawyer and I need to have it now!"

Anna looked at him. "And how may this crook help you?"

"Oh…" He paused. He obviously didn't consider that lawyers could be female. "I need to have a talk about your son Austin." He then introduced himself as Brad McCloud, Brandon's father.

"What did he do now?"

"He's been ambushing my son Brandon after school, threatening to beat him up unless he pays him two Twinkies every day!"

Anna clearly had experience with her son's schemes. So did Laufey, raptly listening from the couch. "Austin!" Anna called. "Get down here! Mr. McCloud wants to talk to you."

Austin rushed down the stairs, trying to smooth his hair. As usual, his hair didn't cooperate. "Hello, Mr. McCloud."

"What?!" McCloud yelped. "This is your son? My kid could snap this human toothpick in half!"

Austin gulped. Okay, he was tall and slim like his mother, but was he really that skinny?"

"Yes, that's him. Austin, explain yourself!" Anna snapped, relaying McCloud's story.

"Look, it went like this. Brandon was beating me up every day, so I hired a bodyguard. I paid him a Twinkie every day. Then you stopped packing Twinkies in my lunch, so I had the bodyguard tell Brandon that he would get beaten up twice as hard as I was, unless he paid me two Twinkies every day. I eat one, and give one to the bodyguard. Everyone wins—you don't have to pay for Twinkies, my bodyguard and I get something we like for lunch, and Brandon gets his lesson for beating up nerds."

Laufey grinned broadly—she, too, had had problems with bullies. "Austin—you're a genius!"

"Don't _encourage_ him!" cried McCloud. "He's not a genius, he's an _extortionist_!"

"Well, you can't say he doesn't have a great criminal mind in him," said Laufey. "Like father, like son…"

"What do you mean?" asked Austin. Around the Smith house, questions about Austin's father were strictly _verboten_.

"Your aunt doesn't know what she's talking about. She's been smoking too much pot." Anna quickly changed the subject. "This wouldn't have happened if your son hadn't been beating my son up!"

"I'll call off my kid if you call off yours," replied McCloud, stubbornly.

"Call yours off first!"

"You!"

"No you first!"

"Hey," interrupted Laufey. "Call your kid off or I'll pay my sister a Hershey bar to whoop your ass."

"I'll have a talk with Brandon," replied McCloud. A criminal mastermind high school student with a lawyer for a mother, especially if she was called "Hammerhand," was not someone to mess with too much. If Brandon was going to beat a nerd up, at least he could be smart about it. "Good night," McCloud said, slamming the door.

Laufey poked her head in the kitchen "Not that infernal meat loaf _again_!"

"Girls, it's ready!" Anna called. "Come on, Godfather, let's go in to dinner."


	3. Rumors and Kidnappings

Chapter 3: Rumors and Kidnappings

Austin Smith walked to his first period AP English class. Even though he enjoyed science and math most, he was a bona-fide genius who excelled in all his other subjects. Normally, as a card-carrying geek, the throngs of sheep like students now making their way to various classrooms generally ignored him, except when something bad happened to him. Then they would laugh.

Today was different.

Today people whispered and pointed at him in the hallway.

"Is that him?"

"Do you think it's true?"

"He does look like him"

"He always was a weirdo"

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"

But when Austin looked to see what they were talking about, they averted their eyes…

Second period. AP Physics. Austin finished his assignment well ahead of everyone else. He always was good at science, and he never needed the book; it was enough to listen to what his teacher, James, said. Austin didn't really know where he got his talent in science from. None of his family was interested in it. Anna was interested in history and law, Laufey was interested in Shakespeare and literature, and Magni…well she was interested in Tobey Maguire.

Austin pulled out a copy of _Popular Science_. James looked up. He knew his star pupil was already finished. _The kid's brilliant_, he thought. _He'll win the Nobel Prize someday_.

Austin's reading was interrupted by a hoarse, mocking whisper from the guy in front of him.

"Hey! Hey, Octopus Junior!"

Austin looked up. "Yeah?" Although just _what_ he had to do with octopuses was beyond him. He hoped Rachelle and Magni didn't tell anyone about his stupid dream about the skyscraper-climbing octopus.

"Ah! So you _are_ his bastard!"

"Are you calling me a bastard?" Austin asked, his temper rising. "And what the hell is with the octopus stuff?"

The kid smirked. "Read something besides _Popular Science_ sometime. You might learn something." With a very ugly laugh, the kid handed him a tabloid.

Austin read the headline: "Doc Ock's Love Child: Tentacled supervillian may have fathered son with one night stand."

Austin leafed to the article. There was a copy of his yearbook photo, along with a picture of his alleged father. Austin could see the resemblance; the man had his eyes, mouth, chin, and messy brown hair. According to the article, they also shared an interest in science—the man was once a famous nuclear physicist.

But there were some things they did not share.

The man in the article had four long metal tentacle-like arms, with razor-sharp pincers at the ends, attached to his back.

And he had a criminal record.

Austin came home from school with a tabloid under his arm.

"Mom, we need to talk."

Anna shifted in her seat. She knew very well what her son wanted to talk about.

"Who is my father?"

"I've told you. Your father was a man named Jake Winthrop. He left me shortly after you and Magni were born."

"He's a deadbeat," Laufey added. Jake Winthrop was indeed a deadbeat dad—which explained why the family was usually hurting for money.

Austin slapped the tabloid on the table, not mollified. "Then explain why this magazine claims my father is a man named Dr. Otto Octavius, who you had a one-night stand with."

Anna turned an odd shade of off-white, swallowed her root beer the wrong way, and launched into another fit of coughing.

"What's there to explain?" Anna snapped when she came to. "That paper isn't fit to toilet train a dog. They see you, brown eyes, brown hair, sunglasses, likes science, no dad at home, and think, 'Oh, he must be the illegitimate son of some mad scientist criminal mastermind.' These—journalists—and I use the term very loosely—make money off this crap. Think nothing of it." She pushed the tabloid back.

"Didn't they have an article in here once about Arnold Schwarzenegger's alleged love child?" asked Rachelle, who for her part refused to believe the rumors. "Austin's a nice guy. There's no way he could be the son of a horrible man like Doctor Octopus. No friggin' way."

"That's the spirit, Rachelle," said Anna, finishing her root beer.

Laufey poked her head in the doorway of Austin's room. She held an envelope.

"Come in, Aunt Laufey."

Laufey sat on the bed. "Can I explain something?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Your mother is in a state of denial. You see, the man she claims is your father, Jake Winthrop, was an abusive man. He was physically and verbally abused your mother—and, er, had me against my will."

"He _raped_ you?" gasped Austin.

"Yeah. Anyway, he told your mother that he had an affair with me, which I didn't, just before she left for her bar association conference in New York. She must have been really smashed--she didn't know she had had sex until she found out she was pregnant. Even then she thought you were Jake's child." Laufey paused for effect. "You need to see this." She opened the envelope and handed the paper inside to Austin.

Austin read the paper. It was a paternity test, and one portion, the most important, was highlighted.

_Concerning the child Austin O. Smith, the possibility of Otto Octavius as the father is 99.999999._

"DNA doesn't lie, as you know." Laufey said. "But mothers do, especially if the truth is painful. Jake Winthrop divorced your mother the day after you and Magni were born. He knew you were not his child."

"Wait—" Austin said. "How'd you get my DNA?"

"At your fifth birthday party, I pretended Rachelle had put gum in your hair and pulled out a few hairs on the pretext of removing the gum. You hardly remember that."

"Okay—how'd you get _his_ DNA?"

"I called an old friend of mine. I won't tell you who he is, only that he and your father go _way_ back, and he went to the same college I did. He was lecturing in my photojournalism class. Man, some of the best memories I have were from Empire State University…"

"So you _knew_?" exploded Austin, interrupting Laufey's reverie. "You _knew_ ever since I was _five_ and didn't tell me until _after_ I read about it in the _tabloids_?!"

"I'm sorry, Austin! I told Anna about the test, and she didn't even know who he really was until I told her! I wanted to tell you earlier, but Anna forbid me to! She said it wasn't a big deal!"

"Laufey, I think finding out your dad is a convicted mass murderer _is_ a big deal!" Austin grabbed his jacket and pushed past his aunt.

"Where are you going?"

"Out."

Austin was at the Elsinore Mall. He was at first bewildered at the small groups of children costumes, parading as devils, witches, pumpkins, ghosts, and everything else. The he remembered—it was Halloween night. In the ruckus about his paternity, he had forgotten.

The doctor sat down at the food court table at the same mall, rather gingerly. The tentacle, while having many virtues, made even simple things like sitting in a chair complex. The scientific conference wasn't starting for another two days. This was the nearest New York City-Elsinore flight he could get, and even then he had to submit to having his tentacles wrapped in five layers of duct tape by airport security before he could even go.

_**Father?**_

_What now?_ The doctor thought. _Can't I even have a coffee in peace?_ _You were lucky I figured out how to cut that duct tape off._

_**Father, you need to see this.**_

_Not now. I'm trying to think._

_**It is imperative that you read this.**_

The tentacle lifted a tabloid from the adjacent booth. It slipped it down on the table for its master to read. Before he could read it, though, the tentacles' attention was diverted.

**_Spider-man! _**They hissed.

The approaching man was indeed in a Spider-man costume.

_Relax. It's just a Halloween costume._

_**What's Halloween? **_

_**You are such an idiot! It's when kids dress up and ask for candy!**_

_I'll explain later._

"Nice Doc Ock costume, sir," the man said. "It's very realistic, especially the arms."

_**What an idiot.**_

"Thanks," Otto grunted. He returned to the tabloid and read the headline: "Doc Ock's Love Child: Tentacled supervillian ma have fathered son with one night stand."

He read the article and saw the photo of a young boy who had his eyes, mouth, chin, hair, and obsession with science. He had a son? Here in California? Who was his mother? After all, not every woman wanted a roll in the hay with a tentacled mad scientist.

**_You're not mad._**

**_She could be that Anna woman. In the bar, fourteen years ago. The lawyer from California. Remember?_**

_I had sex with her? I must have been drunk._

Fortunately, the tentacles knew what drunk was. They had seen their "father" drown his troubles at the bar countless times.

_**Yes. You were very intoxicated.**_

_**We should look for him. This love child.**_

_**What's a love child?**_

_**Well, if you don't know, I'm not telling you!**_

_Yes_, he thought, a smile playing around his lips. _I should look for him._

Austin sat down at the food court, too lost in his own thoughts to notice the man across the room sipping a coffee, his tentacles now hidden under a black leather trench coat.

_My life sucks, _he thought. _The jocks beat me up, the girls are ignoring me again, and I just found out from the gossip sheets that a criminal mastermind is my father. Can life get any worse?_

The tentacles wound themselves around Austin's legs like boa constrictors, and when Austin found himself being hauled away, he realized that yeah, his life could definitely get worse.

Before he knew it, Austin had been carried into the back parking lot.

"We're just going to have a little talk," said his father.

"What's with the tentacles nearly squeezing me to death if you just want to talk?" Sure enough, three of the arms were holding him tightly. A fourth was hovering around the front of his pants.

Austin shut up. As bad as being kidnapped was, it was preferable to the Lorena Bobbitt treatment.

"Where is he, Laufey?" Anna shouted. "He should have been home by now! No _note_, no _call_, no—you were the last one to see him! Where is he?!"

"I asked him where he was going!" retorted Laufey. "And he just said 'out'! Stop treating me as the enemy! I care about him too!"

"He could have been _injured_, he could have been _killed_, he could have been _kidnapped_—"

knock knock

Anna opened the door. Two police officers were flashing their badges in the doorway. It was always two. It was on all the TV shows.

"Don't tell me he's—"

"No, we're pretty sure Austin's not dead, Mrs. Smith," replied the older detective. "However, we do believe he has been kidnapped."

"Well are you going to find him?" asked Laufey.

"Who did it?" asked Anna.

"We don't know. That's why we need your help."

"I know! I know!" cried Rachelle. Her favorite show was _Law & Order_. She was overjoyed at getting to help with an investigation, kidnapping of her beloved cousin notwithstanding. "It was Doctor Octopus!"

Laufey and Magni burst out laughing. Anna went into another coughing fit.

"Seriously," said Rachelle. "Officers, isn't it true that a viable suspect must have means, motive, and opportunity?"

"Er, yeah," grunted the younger detective.

"Well, I think that horrible man kidnapped my cousin, and here's why."

Rachelle took out the tabloid that had caused so much trouble. "First, the motive. This tabloid claims that Austin is his son. Maybe he wanted to see if it was true, talk to him, but Austin didn't want to, so he got kidnapped!"

Rachelle then took out a newspaper. The headline read: "Elsinore Prepares for Scientific Conference." "Now the opportunity. Elsinore is hosting this big scientist meeting. Maybe he was invited to come, he was once an eminent physicist. Or maybe he was going to steal some scientific equipment and decided to have a family reunion on the way. From the tabloid, he knew his alleged son was in Elsinore."

"Very good," the older cop said, impressed. "But what about the means?"

Rachelle shrugged. "He's a supervillian. If he needed money, wouldn't he just take it?"

The cops whispered among themselves. Then they said: "Let's get down to the station. Oh, yeah, the brown-haired girl should consider a career in law enforcement."

Somewhere over Nevada, a green and orange helicopter was hovering in the night sky. Inside the helicopter, a tentacled supervillian was trying to explain himself to his long-lost son.

"Look, I didn't know you even existed until a short while ago," Otto said. Numbers and formulas were his strong suit. Words, emotions—_fatherhood_ was not. "You know, I always wanted to have a family with my wife, until she died. Now that I've found you, we can be a family."

"I have a family, thank you very much." Austin snapped.

"I just want to talk, to know what we have in common—"

"Not a hell of a lot."

"—what you believe, what you're interested in. I want to know my son." He attempted to hug his son, but Austin was decidedly unreceptive.

"Get those slimy things off me!" Austin pushed the tentacles away.

Finally Otto had enough. "You should respect your father."

"Why should I? Do you feel you deserve respect?"

Otto thought for a while. After all the things he'd done, no he really didn't.

Anna, Laufey, Rachelle, and Magni were now sitting in a private office at the Elsinore police station.

Chief Leeann Taylor, a sixth-generation police officer, strode in.

"I've never seen _this_ before. Let me get this straight. You're saying a evil genius supervillian kidnapped a boy because a tabloid claims he's his son? Can't be _too_ smart."

"He is," said Laufey. She felt that her failure to tell her mother and nephew the truth had resulted in this. "I've got the paternity test."

"May I have that?" Chief Taylor asked, taking Rachelle's newspaper and tabloid, and Laufey's paternity test.

"Harrison!" Chief Taylor snapped to a nearby lieutenant. Harrison came _running_ to his boss' desk. "I want an Amber Alert," she ordered. "14-year-old Austin Smith, 6' 2", 175 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes, last seen wearing a gray t-shirt, blue jeans, and sunglasses, suspected abducted on Halloween night by his non-custodial father, Otto Octavius, 5' 9", 245 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes, last seen wearing black trench coat, black slacks, black gloves, and sunglasses. May be heading for New York City--_Harrison, are you writing that down?_"

"Yes, ma'am," confirmed Harrison.

"Oh yeah—" Chief Taylor paused. "The suspect should be considered _armed and dangerous_." Taylor nervously chuckled at her little pun. "Okay, people," she ordered, "I want posters, a spot on Channel 3 news, whatever you can get. Get _up_!" She directed this at two pot-bellied cops sitting down eating donuts. "No one takes sick days, vacation days, you don't even _eat a donut_ around here until the District Attorney's son is found, you hear? This case is top priority!" She looked around at the officers goggling at her. "Well? What are you waiting for? Doom?"


	4. Tentacles and Voices

Thank you to all the people who reviewed (Agent Silver reviewed thrice and Karina of Darkness reviewed twice, bless them)

Now for the story...In the last chapter, the rumors wereconfirmed, Doc Ock found out about his son, and Austin was kidnapped! In this chapter...**Austin does the unthinkable! **Now read, for God's sake...and don't forget to review!

Chapter 4: Tentacles and Voices

It was November 3. After a _very_ long helicopter ride, Austin had been taken to what looked like a derelict warehouse, but was actually clean, orderly, and pretty cool on the inside. Austin didn't know it, but this was once New York City's Pier 56.

Pretty cool for a supervillian's secret lair, anyway.

It wasn't like Austin had been mistreated. Although it was forbidden for him to go out of the warehouse during daytime, he got to eat whatever he wanted and he got to rent movies sometimes. He even got some new clothes that were more appropriate for the New York City winter. One of the things in the shopping bag was a long black leather trench coat.

_It's probably stolen from somewhere_. Austin thought. _No way in hell am I wearing that_. But when temperatures reached the low forties the next day, he quickly changed his mind about the coat. His father was pleased, although Austin thought he merely looked like a younger, taller, skinnier, extra-arm-less version of his father.

At night, when no one was watching, his father took him to see the sights of New York City. Austin saw the Statue of Liberty, Broadway, the Empire State Building, and they even left two roses at Ground Zero. (Which led to a long talk on his father's dead wife, and the red rose tattoo on his forearm. He missed his wife, and who could blame him?)

It wasn't that bad, actually. Though it did creep Austin out one night when he woke up to find four red eyes staring at him.

_Get a hold of yourself, they're not staring at you_, Austin told himself. _They're just machines on my father's back. They can't stare at you_. Nevertheless, Austin rolled over.

With a cold metal poke in the ribs, Otto woke up at dawn in his recliner. He'd let Austin have the bed.

_I know you don't sleep, but I need to!_

**_There is no food in the cupboards, Father._**

**_There is nothing for you and your son to eat._**

_The stores aren't even open._

_**We could sneak in, smash the windows, and grab some things.**_

_No! No crime, you hear? We're going to go in and buy it like a normal person._

_**That's boooooring!**_

_My son is here! I want to set a good example! No crime, you hear?_

**_Yes, Father_**, they chorused. _Like kids being chewed out after getting caught with their er, pincers in the cookie jar_, their master thought with a chuckle.

_**Father! Number Three's picking on me!**_

_Just like little kids._

Austin woke up to find his father gone and a heavy downpour of rain and hail outside the window. Should he make a break for it? No, he would just get lost. Or with rain like that, drowned.

Austin went to get a drink of water. On the way, he nearly tripped over something on the floor.

_What the--!_ He thought. He bent over to look at what he had nearly broken his neck over. It was a trap door handle. Slowly, Austin pulled it open, then climbed down the ladder.

Austin felt for the light switch, turning it on. What he saw amazed him. Here was a playground beyond his wildest dreams—a fully functioning laboratory, with state of the art scientific equipment.

_All of it probably stolen_, Austin thought with a smirk. He decided to look around. He played with the computer. He looked inside the desk. He inspected the machines.

Austin pulled out a drawer, staring at the worn set of green and orange tights that flopped out. _Ugh. With that color combination, it's no wonder people think he's nuts._

Then something caught his eye. Like something deep inside his mind spoke to him. He walked to an object across the room, draped over with a blue sheet. Trembling, Austin pulled off the sheet.

The duplicate set of arms were much like his father's, but they were shiny, streamlined, and silvery, and trimmed in a metallic blue where his were trimmed in yellow.

_So he's not entirely a lost cause when it comes to color_, Austin thought. Then he did the unthinkable.

He pulled up his t-shirt and snapped the harness on.

The artificial spine unfurled and attached itself to Austin's back. Austin gasped in pain (pleasure? It was hard to tell which) as the needles went in. "So this is what power feels like," Austin said, catching his breath.

He practiced picking things up with them, then decided to take them off. He planned to put them in his duffel bag to take back to California. If he did it right, he could study them and make significant advances in bionics and maybe even spinal replacement.

But of course, nothing ever goes as planned, does it?

A lightning bolt, as if Someone up there was punishing Austin for his presumptuousness, tore through the wiring of the warehouse, causing a surge in the electrical supply. Austin was electrocuted, and fell down on the floor facedown. Otto had just returned from the grocery store with four bags full of groceries (we can only hope they were legally obtained) when he heard the explosion rock his lab.

"Austin! Austin!" Otto desperately called, dropping the groceries. He found his son sprawled in debris facedown, wearing his duplicate set of tentacles. He called 911. God only knew how many lives had been affected by his great experiment so many years ago. Now, his son numbered among them…

Voices. The first thing that Austin was aware of was voices. Voices of surgeons discussing him as if he couldn't hear them. And voices of…he didn't know what yet.

"Okay, what have we got here?"

_**Are you our father?**_

"Fourteen year old male. Otto Octavius called him in."

_**He is too young to be our father.**_

"The great Doctor Octopus, eh? The sick bastard did this to a teenage boy?"

_**He is only a boy.**_

"Isn't this his love child? He does look just like him."

_**Besides, Otto Octavius is our father.**_

"He says he was away when this happened. So the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, they say."

_**He is Otto's son.**_

"Don't you read the tabloids? He had a one night stand with this California lawyer."

_**Therefore, he must be our brother.**_

"Nothing like getting screwed by a lawyer. Okay, business first, pleasure later. What do we have here?"

_**Brother, where are you?**_

Austin only remembered having one sister. He didn't have any brothers…or did he? It was all so confusing. _Who is that?_

_**We will serve you. We are part of you. We are you.**_

_**We will be good little brothers.**_

"It looks like the metal 'spine' has fused with his spinal cord. It's almost like he's got two spines instead of one. The metal arms also look like they're wired to his cerebellum."

Austin was vaguely aware of four blue eyes staring at him.

"Well, we are going to have to do something about that, are we? Can't have another Doc Ock running around. We chop up the harness first. I'll do it. I got an A in high school shop." An electric surgical saw whirred.

_**What is that?**_

_**He's coming to get us with that saw!**_

_**He's going to hurt us!**_

_**Brother, don't let them hurt us!**_

_**Save us, Brother!**_

_I can't…save_ me

"He could be permanently paralyzed from the neck down if this goes wrong…"

_**He's going to hurt us…**_

_What are you waiting for then? You know what to do…_

"Don't worry, nothing's going to go wrong…what the $#!"

It went wrong. It went horribly wrong.

_**Wake up, Brother!**_

_**We want to show you what we did!**_

_**Aren't you proud?**_

_**Get us out of here!**_

_I can't. Get _me _out of here._

Austin slowly made his way towards his father's warehouse, retrieving his pants, underwear, and coat, dressing himself along the way. He was vaguely aware of stepping over something, he thought it was dead bodies.

_**Aren't you proud?**_

_I'm a murderer now…I killed people..._

_**No you didn't, Brother. We killed them. We did it to protect you.**_

Wasn't self-defense a defense for murder? His mother would know.

Exhausted, Austin fell to his knees in front of the warehouse. His father spoke behind him. "It wasn't your fault."

Austin's voice was a cracked whisper. "I was the one playing around with them."

"I could help you cope with it, you know. I've been living with them far longer than you have."

"Great!" Austin exploded. "I can just imagine this around the dinner table. 'What did you do today at school, Austin?' 'Oh, I killed six people, that's three more than yesterday, isn't that great?'"

"Stop being sarcastic, Austin! Really, I can help you avoid the same mistakes I made."

"Just leave me alone."

But Austin never heard how his father could help. Red and blue lights were flashing outside the window.

Chief Taylor stepped out of the front passenger side with a megaphone. "Otto Octavius—Doctor Octopus or Doc Ock or whatever they call you—come out with your hands up! The real ones!"

He tried to raise his tentacles, but couldn't. They felt too heavy.

"Don't even try _that_, Doctor," Taylor shouted, brandishing a remote control device. "I've got them short-circuited. Now bring out Austin!"

Austin stepped out, quickly throwing the coat over his tentacles.

"Cuff him," Taylor ordered the NYPD officers. She handed one a roll of duct tape. "Take care of the extra arms, too."

Austin was silent. He let the officers haul his father away. "Otto Octavius, you are under arrest for kidnapping and fleeing across state lines, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…" Then he let another officer whisk him away, without looking back.

Nothing would ever be the same again.


	5. Bullies and Brothers

Chapter 5: Bullies and Brothers

6:30 am. Time to get up and dressed for school. Austin rolled out of bed, hoping that "Please excuse Austin Smith for November 1-5, he was kidnapped by his maniacal supervillian father" would work. His tentacles opened their blue eyes. Austin slipped on some jeans, then put on a t-shirt. Not liking this, the tentacles tore a hole through the back to get out. Austin sighed. He needed to get used to this. He slipped on his sunglasses and black trench coat, mentally warning his "brothers" to stay inside. They were the last thing Anna needed to know about after her only son was kidnapped by his biological father and returned no worse for wear (as far as she knew). He went down to breakfast.

Anna and Laufey were arguing about a case.

"The evidence is purely circumstantial. You'll never convict, the defense has basis for reasonable doubt."

"I have very good evidence. I'll convict. If I can't, the press will be screaming for blood."

"You're in denial about this!"

"Laufey, I have never been in denial about _anything_!"

Just then, Laufey let out a loud fake cough, which sounded very oddly like "_Doc Ock!_"

Austin reached for some waffles.

Laufey abandoned her legal discussion to look at him. "Okay, is this the part where you tell me that this isn't reality, it's all a computer simulation, and you're going to save us all?"

Austin could tell that Laufey had completely forgotten about the argument she had with him. Austin could tell she was happy to have him home, even with the sarcasm. Okay, he looked like a Matrix reject. But how could he ruin her joy by telling her what he was hiding under that coat?

"Okay Neo, get your backpack. I'm driving you to school," said Anna.

Lunch period. The next edition of the tabloid had come out, and since most teens had attention spans about as short as Paris Hilton's skirt, the whole Doc Ock's Love Child thing had blown over by now. It always did.

But with Austin, it would never blow over.

It wouldn't blow over for Brandon McCloud, who had enjoyed taunting Austin from when they were three, when Brandon shoved Austin's face in his ice cream cake.

"Hey! Octopus Junior! O.J.! Wanna finish what we were doing before the whole Twinkie thing?"

_**You look angry. Do you dislike this boy?**_

_That's an understatement. He's been beating me up since I was three._

_**We will make sure you are not beat up anymore.**_

_No. I won't let you. I won't repeat the same mistakes my father made._

_**Please? Just one stab?**_

_No! Don't even try it!_

Brandon brought Austin out of his mental conversation. "Hey butt-brain, are you gonna give me that money or am I gonna have to squeeze it out your ears?" He raised his fists and took a swing, two cronies standing by, just in case.

The tentacles burst from his coat, ready to protect their "brother." With superhuman speed, they seized Brandon by his arms and legs and pinned him up against the wall.

The cronies just stared. Taking on a skinny geek was one thing. Taking on a skinny geek with four huge metal tentacles was quite another. Brandon tried to wrestle free, but it was no use.

"You know, you shouldn't hit geeks, Brandon," Austin said coldly. "They might start hitting back." Austin contemptuously bitch-slapped Brandon across the face. "Who's the butt-brain now?" Austin flung Brandon away. "And not a word to anyone…or I won't let you off so easy!"

Brandon didn't hesitate. He ran off as fast as he could, taking his cronies with him. Austin looked at the hole in his coat. Oh well, if he put the tentacles back in, he could at least cover the hole with his backpack.

_Why did you disobey me? Why did you hurt Brandon?_

_**Why not?**_

_Because, even though Brandon is a card-carrying jerk, there are some things people can't do to other people._

_**He hates you. He thinks you are a freak. He would have hit you if we hadn't done anything.**_

_Well…I _am_ a freak._

_**How could you say that?**_

_**You are brilliant!**_

_**We don't think you are a freak.**_

_**You are our brother.**_

_**We love you.**_

_**We could have permanently disposed of Brandon…**_

_**He never would have laid a hand on you again…**_

_Don't even think that! I'm not going to be like my father, okay?_

_**What's wrong with that?**_

_Not much, except for the murdering, stealing, crazy supervillian part!_

5th period. US History.

Mandy Wilson pretended to listen to her teacher. What she was really doing was looking at the boy in front of her. _I wonder what my cheerleader friends would think if they saw me here checking out Austin Smith. Sure, he's a geek, and sure people think a supervillian nut job is his father, but he's cute, okay?_

Rachelle, a seat to Austin's left, began to poke her cousin. "Hey Austin…I think Mandy Wilson likes you."

"How do you know?" he responded.

Rachelle snickered. "She has the same look on her face as Magni does when she talks about Tobey Maguire."

Austin turned around to look. Mandy was now blushing furiously. He knew he must decline if she ever asked him out on a date. And he couldn't tell her why. If she knew, well…she would run screaming from the sight of him. For who could love a tentacled freak?

**_We love you_**, the tentacles reminded him.

_Shut up. You're machines; you can't love._

"Look, can't we call the police, or…"

"You look, Duke. Are you chickening out on me or what?" snapped Brandon.

"I don't think this is a very good idea. He let you off that last time and he might not a second…" Duke Kelly gulped.

"Shut up, you big baby," Brandon McCloud ordered. "No way am I gonna let skinny ole Austin Smith beat me."

"But we're not dealing with just the skinny geeky Austin Smith, we're dealing with the new and improved version." Duke shivered, and it wasn't from the November cold. "Hey, I always thought he was a crazy weirdo. Now I know who he gets it from."

"Whatever," Brandon grunted. "I'm going to get him, metal arms or no metal arms. He owes me money, remember?"

"We can get the money somewhere else." Duke's voice sunk into a frightened whisper. "What if…you know, his _father_ finds out, and…?"

"Well, what can he do?" came the sharp reply. "Knowing him, he's probably locked up in jail, or webbed up to a lamppost somewhere in New York. Quit your whining, and let's go after the creep, or _you're_ gonna be the one washing your hair in the toilet, get my drift?"

"Look, are we going to be able to beat him or not?" Duke asked. "I don't want to end up with a car thrown on top of me or something…"

Brandon counted on his fingers. "Look, _he's_ got eight limbs, _we've_ got eight limbs. How hard can this get?"

3:30 pm. After school.

Magni and Rachelle were waiting in front of the school, waiting for Laufey to pick them up. Laufey was late. She always was.

"Hey, where's Austin?" Rachelle asked this offhandedly, as if she wasn't really worried.

"Probably brooding or something teenage guys do," Magni replied, as if she wasn't really worried either.

"You know, he really doesn't hang out with us anymore."

"Yeah, well, maybe he's actually found some friends. Ha ha."

"I'm worried about him. He's acting so different."

"Yeah, join the club. You think he's on drugs or something?"

"Not Austin. Maybe it was the kidnapping."

"So he is his father?"

"I can't believe that. They're nothing like each other. They look alike. That's it." In Rachelle's mind, Austin was a caring, kind, intelligent, sweet guy. His biological father was Doc Ock, a cold, calculating, heartless monster who had respect neither for the law nor other peoples' lives.

"He'll show up. That is if he doesn't want Mom to chew him out."

"He always does."

Austin, meanwhile, had walked home another way. He had climbed into his room through the window, and locked the door.

"How could I tell them?" he said aloud. "I barely even knew who my father was—and ended up just like him."

_**How can you say it like it's a bad thing?**_

_Do you know how much he's stolen? Do you know how many people he's killed? Or do you even care?_

_**What's wrong with that? **_

_You can't steal and kill. It's wrong, and besides, it's against the law._

**_Is it another one of your petty human customs?_**

_**Laws that people made to keep brilliant people…**_

_**Powerful people…**_

_**People like you…**_

_**From taking away their power.**_

_**To keep you downtrodden.**_

"Regular little conspiracy theorists, are you?" Austin asked out loud.

_**What's that?**_

"You have artificial intelligence, don't you? You can learn things?"

_**This is true…**_

"Then learn to shut up!"

Laufey came to the door, and poked her head in. Austin quickly hid the tentacles, and Laufey, uninvited, sat down on his bed.

"You know, somehow I am reminded of something someone told me."

"What?" Austin said, with a little impatience. He had no time right now for his aunt's quotes.

"A very good friend—the one who helped me with your paternity test—once told me: "With great power comes great responsibility." Now _he_ was told this by his Uncle Ben, who…oh never mind. I'll just leave you to you teenage male brooding." With that, Laufey was gone.

Austin shut the door again, lay on his bed, stretched out the arms, and thought about what Laufey had said.


	6. Power and Responsibility

In the last two chapters: Austin gets welded to his father's duplicate set of tentacles and is returned safely home. He easily dispatches his tormentor Brandon McCloud with the arms that call themselves his brothers.

Now, for the story...Brandon is plotting his revenge, and Austin finds out someone is crushing on him! Now, can he control himself enough to find acceptance? Don't forget to review...questions, comments, compliments and even flames welcome. Now get to it!

Chapter 6: Power and Responsibility

6:30 am. Thursday morning.

Austin rolled out of bed, as reluctantly as usual. He pulled on a pair of blue slacks and a t-shirt. Again, the tentacles ripped a hole in the back of his t-shirt.

_Damn, you have got to stop doing that to my shirts._

_**How will we breathe, Brother?**_

_For God's sake, you're machines. You don't breathe, and t-shirts don't grow on trees._

_**We know that clothing cannot grow on plants, Brother.**_

He was going to have to teach them about colloquial speech. For now, though, he threw his coat and sunglasses on and headed down for breakfast.

Magni was stuffing her face with waffles and sausage. "Dude, forget about what Laufey said about the Matrix. You look like a secret agent gone wrong."

If only she could know.

Meanwhile, Laufey and Anna had been talking in hushed tones.

"So anyway, he was in his room all day talking to himself."

"It's probably a phase, Laufey. Teenage boys brood, okay?"

"I always thought it was okay if you talked to yourself, but something's wrong if you answer yourself. Austin's having _full conversations_."

"Think he's schizophrenic?"

"Post-traumatic stress syndrome is my guess. Maybe the kidnapping kind of tipped him over, you know?"

"Yeah, but he wouldn't end up talking to himself, would he?"

Austin closed his eyes. Even though his mother and aunt were whispering across the table, if he concentrated, Austin could hear what the tentacles heard. And they could hear a great deal more than any person could.

_I'm not talking to myself, I'm not crazy! _He wanted to shout. _I'm talking to tentacles that were grafted on my back when I was kidnapped!_ Of course, he never could.

"So if we looked up a psychiatrist in the yellow pages—"

"Just close your eyes and point. They're all the same."

"I don't want to see a shrink, okay?" Austin shouted, to the surprise of everyone else.

Anna swallowed her coffee the wrong way and went into yet another bout of coughing.

"Shrink?" Laufey asked. "We never said anything about a shrink. We just thought that you might want to talk to someone about the kidnapping. Kidnapping can be a very traumatic event, considering who your father is…"

"I can handle it. I'm not crazy, okay?"

"Dr. Carolyn is very qualified," Anna finally said. "She knows about schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder in teens…"

"And I don't have either!" Austin yelled.

_**They should not talk about you like that, Brother. Why don't we…**_

_If you do, I'll take a chainsaw to you._

"You know, I think that Doc Ock _brainwashed_ Austin when he kidnapped him," Magni pointed out. "I saw this movie called _The Manchurian Candidate_, and it was about this guy who…"

"Shut up, will all of you please shut up!" Austin yelled, picking up his backpack and slamming the door.

He remembered his aunt's words. "With great power comes great responsibility." But what did that have to do with him? What responsibility? To do the right thing? To tell the truth? To do things differently than his father did? To keep from making his mistakes?

_**What mistakes?**_

_**You shouldn't listen to Laufey. **_

_**She's a bad influence.**_

_No, she's a good influence, and you're just mad that I don't let you do what you want to do._

"Are you sure we're going through with this?" Duke Kelly gulped. "I don't want a car piled on top of me."

"Duke Kelly, where the hell do you get your crazy ideas?"

"I saw it in a movie," Kelly said.

"For Chrissakes, he's not going to throw a car on top of us."

"I still think he let you off easy that last time. You're gonna really piss him off."

Brandon rubbed the back of his head. It still hurt after Austin had slammed him into the lockers. "He owes us money, okay?"

"We can get the money somewhere else," Duke Kelly persisted. "Why are you really doing this?"

"Duke, if you were any slower, you'd be going backward. It's not just about the money, it's about my reputation. Once word goes around that Brandon McCloud got beat by Austin Smith, we won't get a dime more off those nerds."

"It'll be like the French Revolution, with our heads on the guillotine. 'Let them eat cafeteria food,'" murmured Duke.

"What are you talking about?"

"Can't we, you know, talk to the principal? Shouldn't she know there's a kid with _huge metal tentacles on his back_ walking around her school?"

"Yeah, you go talk to Dr. Jacklyn Hyde. Once she gets through laughing in your face, she'll suspend you for slandering her star student. Remember the speech at the awards ceremony? _'Austin Smith is a shining beacon for all students pursuing a career in science…'_"

"So talk to your dad. He knew about the Twinkie extortion thing, right?"

"You really expect him to believe that the skinny geek his son's been beating up now has a set of mechanical ten—"

"Doesn't he read the tabloids? He can't have missed that picture of him with that headline, something about being the love child of some mad scientist supervillian, Doctor whatshisname."

"Octopus! And he doesn't buy them. Too intellectual for him."

Mandy Wilson paused before locker 8. (Quite a fitting number for a guy whose father has eight limbs, is it?) She fiddled with a piece of paper. Should she drop it in? And why did lockers have vents, anyway? It wasn't like you could keep pets, or anything that breathed in there. The only conceivable purpose she could think of (besides making sure the freshmen routinely stuffed in those lockers didn't suffocate) was to stuff love notes in, opening her to a whole world of embarrassment. Curse those locker vents!

On the upside, Austin could call the cell phone number she wrote on the back of the poem. Then they would arrange a date, and she could become his girlfriend. She could help him with his social graces, and he could help her with her science homework.

On the downside, he could reject her, and not only would she not have a boyfriend, her friends would all laugh at her. _A cheerleader asked a geek out---and the geek rejected her! Really? It's not like a guy like him can afford to be picky. A science-obsessed geek who looks like a Matrix reject—and have you heard about who his father is supposed to be?!_

Throwing the remaining bit of her caution to the wind, she stuffed the note in.

3:31. Just after school. Austin fiddled with his locker, packing up her books.

_**What are they?**_

_**Books!**_

_**Can we see?**_

_No! Two people already know about you. That's two too many._

A note floated out of the locker, gently resting on the floor. Austin picked it up.

Roses are red

Violets are blue

They say you're an octopus' spawn

But I still love you

Austin read the note three more times before finally looking at the number on the back.

_**Ooh! What is that?**_

_**A love note**_

_**From a girl**_

_**Maybe she wants to go on a date with Brother!**_

_**What's a date?**_

_**You are such an idiot, Number Two, it's when a human male and female get together and…oh, ask Brother to explain it.**_

_**Are you going to call her?**_

A month before, he would have jumped at the chance and thanked God, Yahweh, Allah, his lucky stars, and a few pagan gods along the way. But his tentacles, like annoying kid brothers, were talking to him again. They were exactly why he could never go on dates.

_**Why? Wouldn't she like us?**_

_Who would? Sometimes _I_ don't even like you._

What if he did go out with her? What if he was all dressed up in his dress shirt and slacks, and the tentacles burst from his coat, wanting a closer look, and she ran off screaming? What if he got angry with her for some reason, and the tentacles hurt her in spite of his orders? What if he lost control?

He could never live with himself.

_**We wouldn't hurt her!**_

_**We will be good!**_

_**We promise!**_

_Sure you would. And I have oceanfront property in Kansas._

_**Kansas does not have a coastline, Brother. It is landlocked.**_

He was not going to trust his tentacles too far. His father listened to his tentacles too much. That was how he went from an renowned nuclear physicist to a murderous supervillian. The tentacles were machines—they could not love, they could not care for any other human life besides their "father"—or "brother."

That was his responsibility. To protect others from himself.


	7. Confessions and Confrontations

To Agent Silver: Good point, but the difference is that Parker refuses to have a relationship with Mary Jane to protect her from Spider-man's enemies. Austin refuses to have a relationship with Mandy to protect her from himself--or more specifically, his tentacles' homicidal potential.

In the last chapter...Austin finds Mandy Jennifer's (note initials, heh heh) love note, but refuses to respond for fear of hurting her. Brandon and Duke plot ways of getting back at Austin, while Anna, worrying about her son and not knowing what had happened to him, makes an appointment for a shrink. In this chapter, Austin tells Anna and Laufey the truth...but can they handle it? There's one chapter left...read it while you still can!

Chapter 7: Confessions and Confrontations

Would it have been worthwhile,

To have bitten off the matter with a smile,

To have squeezed the universe into a ball

To roll it towards some overwhelming question,

To say, "I am Lazarus, come back from the dead,

Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all…

--T.S. Eliot, _The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_

_If I don't tell somebody…I'll break_, Austin thought. _Who can I tell?_

His mother? No. She was so much in denial about his father, she couldn't take the news.

Magni? No. She'd gossip to her friends. It would go from being known by two people to the whole school.

Rachelle? She'd die laughing.

His accursed father? Yes, he knew what he was going through, but even if he could get in touch with him, he wasn't sure his father would want him to. He'd driven him away—and stood there watching, doing nothing, as he was hauled away by the cops.

A priest? For one thing, he had never been a big believer in religion. What kind of God would put an innocent teenage boy through this? They said that God is love. Love for who? The televangelists on TV every weekend, asking for money that would go who knows where? Certainly not someone like him. And what could he tell the priest? "Forgive me father, for I have sinned, I got tentacles grafted on my back and I'm afraid of becoming like my super-criminal dad…"

Even in his head it sounded stupid. And for once, his tentacles didn't argue with that.

Laufey? She'd been a second mother to him. She'd always listened to him, never judging. Why didn't he think of her first?

Anna Smith closed her eyes, sitting on the bed.

_Why? Why didn't I believe Laufey, instead of Jake? What if I let Laufey explain what that cheating, deadbeat scum I had for a husband did to her? What would have happened?_

_For one thing, I wouldn't have had a drunken one night stand with an notorious supervillian._

_If I had a son, he wouldn't have been kidnapped and then gone insane._

_He wouldn't be forever known around this town as an octopus' spawn._

A lot of what ifs. And whys.

After school.

Brandon McCloud and Duke Kelly were seen by several people with soaking wet hair and pincer-shaped red marks on their lower legs.

"We were lucky," Duke Kelly said. The two miscreants had foolishly ambushed Austin in the deserted locker room. But Austin was ready for them.

"How is that? We'll never get a dime off the nerds again."

"We're lucky he just gave us swirlies instead of killing us. We bit off more than we could chew."

"Oh yeah, Kelly?"

"We were asking for it," said Duke solemnly. "We were Napoleon, and Austin Smith was our Waterloo."

"What the hell is a Waterloo?"

"Never mind. I'm done with this whole business."

"You can say that again."

"I'm done with this whole business."

"Do I dare disturb the universe?" –T.S. Eliot, _The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock _

Mandy gulped. Austin hadn't called yet. Didn't he have a clue that she was the one who slipped the note in? What would he say if she told him she'd been crushing on him since, what, seventh grade? What if she asked him in person? Would he laugh at her? Would he think it was a sick joke? Or that, like Brittany Gibson, going on a date with him was some sort of punishment? What if she told her friends? Would they laugh at her? Ostracize her? (_The deputy captain of the cheerleading squad, dating a science geek! She could have her pick of the football team and she had to date Octopus Junior._) Would they tell her that it was absurd? Would they remind her of the rumors surrounding Austin's paternity, as if she didn't already know about them?

Austin walked home, and was greeted by his mother. "I'd tell you to get your coat, if you didn't already have one on."

"Why?"

"I've made an appointment with Dr. Carolyn."

"I told you, Mom, I don't want to see a shrink."

"She's a psychologist, Austin, and she'll help you. Don't you see? I'm doing this because I love you and I want you to be happy."

"Then why won't you talk to me about my father? Why did you let me find out who he was from Laufey and the gossip sheets?"

"You wouldn't understand why I did what I did, Austin. You couldn't know what Jake Winthrop was like."

"Try me, Mom. I'm 14."

So Anna told him. She told him how a few days before a bar association conference in New York, Jake, Magni's father and her ex-husband, told her he had an affair with her sister Laufey. How Laufey had insisted Jake had drunkenly raped her, and she would never willingly hurt Anna like that. How Anna refused to believe her sister, calling her a liar, before running off in a huff with her suitcases to the airport.

There were mistakes and there were mistakes.

Because of her refusal (inability?) to believe her sister's story over her husband's, she had stopped by a bar to drown her troubles, and wound up drunk in bed with the first man she talked to, who just happened to be a eight-limbed supervillian.

She told Austin how she announced to Jake that she was pregnant, and Jake was so happy to be a father that she could not (would not?) bring herself to tell him that there was a fifty-fifty chance the baby was not his.

How Jake got so drunk at the sports bar that Laufey had to drive Anna to the hospital when she went into labor, even though Laufey herself was due to have her baby girl any day. How Jake finally stumbled into the hospital, reeking of beer, trying to find his wife and sister-in-law. How the sandy-haired, blue-eyed Jake had staggered in the hospital room, and saw his wife holding a red-haired, blue-eyed girl—and a brown-eyed boy with a mop of dark brown hair. And finally, Anna told her son how it took four hospital security men to keep Jake from beating her up right there. How he filed for divorce the very next day, leaving his daughter by Anna, Magni Samantha, and his daughter by Laufey, Rachelle Marina, behind.

Sex, lies, and alcohol. There were mistakes and there were mistakes.

Laufey peeked her head in. "Can we get going? The appointment's in a half-hour."

"I know you guys think I've gone insane," Austin said, "But I haven't really. You see, something happened when my father kidnapped me—I got in an accident."

"An accident?" asked Laufey, perplexed.

"Yes, it's why it looks like I'm talking to myself and it's why I've been wearing this long coat all the time."

Anna and Laufey just sat there, clueless but anticipating.

Austin took a deep breath.

_It's okay. You can come out now._

He unleashed his tentacles, slowly as to avoid startling them. They wriggled out, opening the pincers to reveal four blue eyes, clicking and hissing as if to say hello.

Anna gasped. Laufey just sat there, goggling. Like snakes charming the humans.

_**Do they like us?**_

_**Who are they?**_

_They are my mother and aunt._

"What the hell?!" Laufey finally said.

"It was an accident, honestly," said Austin. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try us," said Laufey and Anna.

And it was Austin's turn to explain.

How he was at the mall when he was kidnapped. How he was flown on a helicopter to a warehouse on New York City's Pier 56. How he had discovered the laboratory hidden in the basement. How on a rainy late autumn day, he took out his father's duplicate set of tentacles. How, against his better judgment, he had put them on for fun. How a bolt of lightning, sent by a cruel twist of fate, had electrocuted him, fusing the tentacles to his body. How he had woken up in a hospital room full of the corpses of surgeons whose only crime had been attempting to free him of his father's curse. How he had argued with his father and then did nothing as he was arrested, pushing away the one man who could have ever understood.

Foolish pride and curiosity. There were mistakes and then there were mistakes.

Anna reached out, hesitantly. "Will they let me touch them?"

"Don't worry. They won't hurt you. I won't let them."

Anna drew her son close. "Austin, why couldn't you have told us?"

"I was afraid that you wouldn't love me."

"But we _do_. We would have understood. We love you because you are a part of us. Because that's what a family does for each other. Because of what's in your head, and in your heart. What's on your back has nothing to do with it. You're still Austin Smith."

And with two tentacles, Austin drew Laufey into the hug.

"You're not the only one in this family who has issues," Laufey said. "Don't let the other half of your DNA get you down."


	8. Epilouge: Gifts and Curses

To Karina of Darkness: Well, wouldn't _your_ parents still love you even if you had metal actuators?

To the Anonymous Reviewer: Well, how _would_ your mother react? On your second point, I incorporate elements from both the comic and the movie in the story. For example, Otto wears a trenchcoat and mourns for his late wife Rosie, as in the movie, but when Austin is snooping in his lab in Chapter 4, he finds green and orange tights, like his father wore in the comics. And the scene where Austin pins Brandon's arms and legs to the wall with his tentacles, and then slaps him, is supposed to be an echo of his father's first appearance in Amazing Spider-man #3.

Also, some information about the stories if you hadn't already deduced it--yes, Laufey is friends with Spider-man, if you haven't picked up on the hints in Chapters 3 and 5, Mandy Wilson's middle name is Jennifer, sharing her initials with MJ Watson, and it's only after I wrote Chapter 7 that I realized that T.S Eliot is the poet Rosie tried to explain to Otto when she met him on the college steps.

This is the last chapter, but fear not, there will be a sequel with more humor, more angst, more action, and more Marvel-based characters! I had planned on doing another story before releasing the sequel, but my baby brother, Andrew, was born December 16, and I don't have nearly as much time to write as I thought.

Chapter 8: Epilogue: Gifts and Curses

"Not that blighted meat loaf _again_!" cried Laufey.

As if on cue, Magni took the pan out of the oven.

_**Ooh! What is that?**_

_**It smells good…**_

_You're machines. You can't smell, and you can't eat._

_**Is it good to eat?**_

_You just think so because you don't know any better._

Yup, he was definitely going to have to get used to this.

"Mom," whined Magni, "make Austin do something about those things. They're hissing and clicking at me, and it's creeping me out."

**_Doesn't Sister like it when we talk to you?_**

_Be patient. She'll get used to you soon enough._

It had been three weeks since the kidnapping, two weeks and four days since the accident. Anna and Laufey were getting counseling as well as Austin, and by some miracle of nature, Brandon and Duke had kept their mouths shut so far—or maybe it was just plain fear of getting a swirlie again.

Dr. Carolyn was talking to Austin about self-acceptance, and he was finally learning how to find it. He now knew acceptance by other people was fleeting and fickle, and acceptance was going to have to come from within. Austin could only hope that his father, wherever he was, could find it someday too.

This week, the family had rented _Spider-Man 2_ on DVD (at Magni's insistence), and Anna shamefacedly walked out of the room the minute Doc Ock came onscreen. Between being subjected to Magni's absurd fantasies about Tobey Maguire, and being subjected to Rachelle's inane questions on whether he thought Alfred Molina was a good choice to play his father (how in heck was he supposed to know?), Austin began to get it. The part about gifts and curses and power and responsibility, that is. Because there were very real consequences to your choices, and very real dangers in having superpowers, whether you were a Spider or an Octopus.

Austin cleared away the dishes after dinner, which he had to admit, was a lot easier with four extra arms.

"Hey, Mom, whose turn is it to do the dishes?" Austin asked.

"Rachelle's," was the reply.

"Good." Austin pulled a worn paper from the pocket of his coat. "I want to see if this phone number still works."


End file.
